My Day Off
by Aiko Isari
Summary: (Pre-02 AT.) Osamu is crumbling. Ryo never seems to. Ken is always in the background. And the world is so sweet and cruel. Sidestory to 'Put in Check'.


Two hours after his eighth grade entrance ceremony, Ryo is kissed until his mouth hurts and the room is spinning.

He rather likes it.

He's surprised it took Osamu two hours to snap. Perhaps it was the crowds of people getting his number for study help, occupying his time. Perhaps it was the way everyone smiled at Ryo or patted him on the arm, or invited him to clubs. Was he jealous? Of friendship. His friend, boyfriend, something, was so silly. He always wants things he doesn't understand, like having them will change anything. Like having them will fix himself.

Even so, Ryo doesn't mind the sudden possessive affection. Neither does the visitor in his head. This is how Osamu is, alternating between emoting and stoicism, affecting his parents by turns. They know even less on how to handle him than they do on how to handle Ken. Ken, who stumbles after Ryo and makes small noises now because speaking in words is currently more energy than he has, whose hands squeeze an invisible stress ball to find their grip again. The Ken who smiles and wants his toy, wants his Digivice because that's who he is and he remembers that.

Ryo doesn't give it to him. For one thing, Osamu is always watching. Always frantic, always scared. For another, he doesn't trust Ken with it. As long as both boys think it's in the drawer, everything will be fine, he thinks.

So he lets Osamu manhandle him a little, never mind that he really can't. Never mind that he's basically a wet noodle when he wants to be. Or even when he doesn't. It's Ryo that's run through deserts, Ryo that's tamed monsters, Ryo that has looked at his little brother and seen him for who he is.

Osamu simply sees a glass figurine that he can't touch anymore.

Honestly, that's his fault. But Ryo doesn't bother to tell him so. Instead he kisses him and bites his mouth and glares when Osamu tries to look sorry for himself. "You picked me," he says. "It's your day off, and you chose me." Osamu still has the gall to look unhappy. Ryo sighs and rolls his eyes. "Drama queen." He musses Osamu's hair, doesn't feel bad at the way it creeps over the thin frames and heavy lenses. "He'll be home soon."

"I know!" Sharp, childish, like a butter knife. Osamu is a butter knife and he doesn't even know it. "He's just… he's just running late."

"He's going to your old school." Ryo whaps him over the head and gets off, noting the dust on the framed awards, noting the books hastily shoved onto shelves. He moves to organize them, using his own system, because it will make Osamu angry. He likes that sometimes. "He's going to be swamped."

"And _bullied_." Osamu scoffs in disdain. "And laughed at. Like I was."

"Yeah, before you shoved their brains into blenders."

"Ken's too gentle for that."

"You'd be surprised." Ryo knows Ken better than Osamu, and knows Osamu better than Ken. Ken is definitely kind, but not infinitely gentle. He knows the importance of fighting, of standing up for what he wants. He doesn't have a choice but to now. He fought with a Wormmon and made his friend evolve into a killing machine full of love and devotion and if that doesn't harden a heart, he doesn't know what does.

Of course, Osamu knows none of this. Wizarmon believes it's better not to tell him.

Not when it's Osamu's fault it happened to Ken anyway. He would never forgive himself, not when it was for doing nothing wrong.

By impulse, Ryo strides over and pulls Osamu into a headlock, nips at his ear like the dragon he is. Osamus squeaks (he hates admitting that he squeaks), long enough to make his boyfriend's fists start smacking at his spine. Ryo laughs and lets go.

"Sorry," he says without meaning it. "You have a great face when you get freaked out."

"It's bad that you like it," Osamu grumbles, but it's half-hearted as always. He doesn't know how the relationship works, doesn't really know how any of them work. To be fair, Ryo doesn't either.

Wizarmon chides him without words and Ryo wonders if the man has any time to worry about that girl and his friend when he's trying to instruct two idiot boys about their illicit love affair.

(Illicit because it's illegal, or illicit because it's immoral? No one knows and they don't care.)

Wizarmon only laughs. The sound is bitter and billowing in his head and it makes Ryo realize just how _weird_ telepathy is when it's stuck in your own mind.

Osamu pulls him down for a moment, not for affection, but simply for a warm body. He gets cold easily. Ryo complies, rolls next to him on the small bed, blocks out the world with his back, and holds him tight.

He blocks out his own demons, the strange monster who whispers for him to return, whispers for reasons he doesn't care about. His questions are almost answered. He blocks out the broken cry Ken had made when that thing had squirmed in and out of him and failed to do whatever it is it wanted to do to him. He focuses on Osamu's face without his glasses, on the way he looks young and peaceful the longer he keeps his eyes closed. Ryo doesn't expect this turn into a cuddle or something, mostly because the door is half-open and one of them is going to have to get up eventually. It's easier if they're not stiff.

His breathing slows. Ryo listens, their foreheads touching on the pillow, watches. Someone might call it creepy, but he's waiting. Waiting to see if the crumbling will happen, or the nightmares. It's Osamu's free time, he uses it to shatter. He uses it to tear off the superglue and force himself back to normal and Ryo knows it's not going to work forever.

So Ryo waits, and watches. He waits until he is certain Osamu Is too deeply asleep to be woken. Then he rolls off, is sappy enough to kiss him on the forehead and tuck him like he's younger than fourteen, and leaves the room. He'd do it every night if he could, like he bickers and persuades and scolds with the other boy. Like over affection is normal but proper affection is too much. That's how they work, he thinks. That's just how it is.

Wizarmon disagrees. Well, he disagrees with a lot of things. It's the trouble with adults. They think they're always right, that they should have all of the answers.

But there's no answer to the ghost's problem. None that either of them can think of.

None that Osamu's allowed to worry about. Ryo wouldn't ever let him.

So he sits on the couch outside and waits for Ken. Because Osamu needs a day off. Ryo can't afford one.

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 _ **A/N:**_ All right, the backdrop for the multichap is complete. Please read and review and don't forget to check out the AU, Put in Check, where all the stories come together! Thanks and enjoy!

Challenges: 28 days of love, day 18: a pairing you have never written before, AU Diversity Boot Camp 15. Warming, and Diversity Writing Challenge C52. write a pairing you read but don't normally write.


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